Catherine
by Layne Raconteuse
Summary: Catherine Hawthorne is a quiet student at Cross, one that enjoys reading more than social intrigue. But her childhood nightmares have returned, and with them, disturbing hallucinations and memories not her own. Now, a new student has appeared in the Night class that just might be behind all this. This is the story of tender romance in a world of chaos and blood.
1. Old Haunts

I couldn't see a bloody thing.

Something caught my foot, and I stumbled, arms flailing in the darkness for something to catch myself on. My fingers trailed against the wall. Cropped velvet rasped against my fingertips, and something else- something warm and sticky. I hit my knees on the floor.

I brought my fingers near my face and sniffed them- they were coated in something heavily metallic, slightly meaty. I shuddered and swallowed hard.

Crawling on all fours now, I crept across a cold wooden floor, flinching every time the boards creaked under my hands. My nightgown caught under my knees several times.

Something followed me in the darkness.

I could hear it behind me, dragging something as it stepped slowly towards me. Somehow, I couldn't crawl fast enough. I couldn't get back to my feet. My arms and legs trembled with the effort, but it was more like swimming than crawling. The air was too thick, too heavy with the scent of blood.

Something touched my shoulder, high up near my neck. It was a gentle touch, a caress. But icy cold. I gasped and jerked away.

There was the sound of an exasperated release of breath. I fell backwards into a sitting position, my eyes searching blindly through the black as I scooted backwards.

My back hit the wall, and the thick cold seeped through my hair and my thin nightgown. The hand reached out again, stroking my jaw.

I choked out a sob.

There was the sound of fabric settling, and then two hands held my face between them. A lock of hair brushed my face, erasing the scent of blood with one of metal and ice.

I tried to turn away.

One hand moved away and grabbed the fabric of my nightgown over my chest, slamming me to the floor. There was a flash of light when my head hit the ground, and I could have sworn I could see it for just a second- death pale, eyes black as night...

The free hand clapped over my mouth, and I knew what would happen.

I'd had this nightmare every night for a week. It was a wonder that I hadn't woken up yet already this time.

I screamed through the hand and felt my real body jerk. The darkness melted away into sparks, and I struggled to open my eyes.

A hoarse scream erupted from my real voice.

Awake, at last, I sat up and hugged myself tightly. Only a sheet and a cotton nightgown covered me- the rest of my blankets were kicked to the foot of the bed. My pillow was sitting on the floor, next to my glasses that had been knocked off the nightstand.

I looked over at the other side of the room, hoping I hadn't woken Christine.

Thankfully, her bed was empty. I remembered now- she was with her family, away from school. It was winter break. She was in Germany with her aunt and uncle, enjoying a stay at a Black Forest lodge. I shook my head, trying to cast off the languor brought on by the nightmare. I was still disoriented.

I was one of the handfull that stayed at Cross over the holiday. A Christmas card from Christine sat on my nightstand, showing a merry snowman holding up his pipe in one hand and a book of carols in the other. It was the only decoration I had in my room.

Gulping in the chill night air, I pushed off my sheets with a shiver and swung my feet over the edge of the bed, sliding them into my slippers. My glasses, luckily, weren't scratched in the fall. I put them on and stood, stretching a little. Tying on my long fleece robe, I went out of the room, headed for the bathroom at the end of the hall. Perhaps I'd get some water.

To my surprise, the door was already open, and the light was on. I went inside, blinking at the bright flourescence, feeling the chill of the tiles seep through my thin slippers.

Yuuki was at the far sink, splashing water in her face. Catching sight of me in the mirror, she turned, water dripping from the tips of her hair. She was still in her school uniform.

"Cat," she said, "What are you doing up so late?"

I looked up at the gold-rimmed clock over the door- the hour hand pointed just past twelve. Early, early Christmas Eve morning, then.

"Bad dreams," I answered, walking towards the nearest sink and turning the ivory knob marked with a curling black C. A stream of water hissed into the drain. Taking off my glasses, I flicked my hair out of my face and cupped my hands under the stream, filling them with water.

Yuuki smiled at me in the mirror. "You too?" She sounded like she was musing more to herself than to me. I looked over at her. The flourescent lights made the circles under her eyes look even darker than they usually were. I smiled wanly.

"I've had them every night since classes let out," I said. Lifting my hands to my lips, I drank the cool, slightly chemical-tasting water. Filling them again, I splashed a handful in my face, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

Drying off my hands and face, I put my glasses back on and smoothed back my hair.

"Merry Christmas," I said, turning out of the room. Yuuki nodded to me.

"Merry Christmas." she answered.

 _Jesu._ Couldn't I be spared the nightmares on Christmas Eve? I'd had night terrors before, as a child. They would come back every so often, and then go away. Lately, they'd been getting worse, and I was seriously considering asking my parents to let me see a psychologist.

I didn't go back to my room. Instead, I turned down the hall and went down the stairs, headed for the chapel on campus. I had a favorite spot up in the balcony where the light came through the stained glass windows just right for reading and sketching. My fingers brushed the tinsel wrapped around the banister, rustling it softly. The rest of the dorm was decorated merrily by the rest of the girls living here. There were sprigs of holly and tea candles, unlit, sitting on the end of every stair. In the common room was a plastic evergreen, wrapped in lights and decked with bows and glass ornaments. Some of the doorknobs even had jingle bells tied to them.

The lobby was colder than the upstairs. The fireplace was empty, with a few ashes scattered in the bottom. Moonlight reflected off the snow through the windows, lighting up the room in icy pale blue. _A cold winter's night that was so deep._ If I wasn't so shaken from my nightmare, I would have stopped and just stared at how beautiful it was. It had snowed at sundown, and kept up for hours. We thought it would snow all night, but now the clouds had cleared, and the full moon and the stars were shining on the clean white bed of snow, framed by the tall icicle-rimmed windows.

Lifting my coat off the stand by the front, I took the side door leading to the brick breezeway between the dorm and the main building.

I hoped no one from the night class was cutting class tonight. I wanted my privacy.

Wrapping my coat around myself tightly, the black wool felt rough against my face, I walked quickly down the cobbled path. The lake was frozen over, and ice glittered around me on all sides. The main school loomed up in the distance like a Gothic cathedral of some Victorian novel. I'm sure the Bronte sisters would have loved to see this.

The gates at the end of the breezeway were locked, but true to its design, the school was built like a castle, and there was a postern gate. Usually, the side door was for the guard, leading up into the house over the gate, but there hadn't been a guard for the Sun dorms for years. I stepped into a tiny tiled room with a door on either side and a spiral staircase in the middle, ducked around the stairs, and went out the other side.

There was a main path for students into the school, but I didn't go that direction. There were gardens all around the school, and I took the path that wandered around to the side of the school, the side nearest to the Sun dorms that held the chapel. Reaching the small extension in the side of the school, I pushed through the heavy wooden door and shut it behind me.

The chapel was lit with candles on the altar- the ones left burning for Advent. I wasn't Catholic, but other students were, and most of the teachers. The ritual now, however, was a comfort. The warm, flickering light was soothing. Climbing the stairs into the balcony seats, I found my favorite spot in the far corner and curled up into a ball, trying to cover as much of myself as possible. The chapel was heated, but it was older than the rest of the school, and it wasn't well insulated.

Reaching forward, I pulled a book out of the back flap of the seat in front of me. The rest of the seats had their hymnals and the prayer book, but this one was one of my own. _The Silmarillion,_ by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was a birthday present of a few years ago, from my mother. It was a beautiful leather bound copy, with illustrated panels and all the chapter titles written out in Elvish calligraphy under the English print. I flipped to the nineteenth chapter where I had left off last, marked with a bit of purple ribbon, and snuggled down to read for a spell.

 _Among the tales of sorrow and ruin that come down to us from the darkness of these days there are yet some in which amid weeping, there is joy, and under the shadow of death, light endures..._

I had just reached the part of the chapter when Beren, hero of the chapter, had first laid eyes upon the beautiful Luthien, when I heard a small sound below that made me start violently. Marking my place, I peered over the seat in front of me. The choir loft and altar were still, the candles burning on silently. Slowly rising from my seat, I slid my book back into the pocket behind the seat and eased out of the balcony, moving as quietly as I could. My heart pounded painfully fast at being startled.

Someone touched my shoulder.

Nightmare still fresh in mind, I whirled around with a gasp.

But instead of the wraith in my dreams, behind me stood the president of the Night Class, a familiar face. Kaname held a finger to his lips and I swallowed, clutching my coat a little tighter around myself. It was a long coat, falling midway down my calf, but I still felt exposed. He looked at me sharply, and I tried to think of the right thing to say to avoid getting in trouble.

"Kuran-" I began, but Kaname shushed me.

"Don't speak," he said, in a voice that was more gentle than reprimanding. Something about the way he said it made me fall silent before I even realized what I was doing. Numbly, I closed my mouth.

Kaname reached towards me, not quite touching me, and my vision began to blur. Moving in an almost dreamlike way, the world tilted, and my eyes drifted shut.

The next morning, I awoke in my bed with my glasses on the nightstand and my slippers on the floor, everything in perfect order. The sun was streaming through the window, glaring off the snow with a softly golden light. I rubbed my eyes, vaguely remembering what had happened last night. It was all so fuzzy...

I wondered if I had merely dreamed going outside and running into Kaname.

Yawning, I stretched luxuriously. I had slept surprisingly well- did I even have a nightmare tonight?

Shrugging, I slid out of bed and went to my dresser, pulling out a set of plain clothes for the day. I thought I smelled cinnamon rolls downstairs from the dining hall. A perfect start for Christmas Eve morning.

I almost didn't notice the spot of half-melted snow just outside my door.


	2. Christmas

I sat at one of the long wooden tables in the cafeteria, a cup of hot chocolate steaming between my hands. A few swollen marshmallows floated on top, dissolving slowly into the chocolate in a creamy swirl. A strawberry danish sat on the plate in front of me, growing cold.

I hadn't dreamed it- Kaname, the Night Class president, was there in the chapel. But what had happened after that? Had I fainted? It didn't make much sense- maybe between the cold and the shock from the nightmare...

Someone was approaching my table. I looked up and immediately my stomach dropped.

Zero.

He had a look to kill on his face, too. So not only had I been found by a dorm president, I'd been reported too. And now the prefect was coming to lecture me.

Zero pulled up a chair across the table from me, turned it around, and straddled it with the his arms folded on the back. I didn't meet his eye.

"I heard you were outside the dorms last night," he said, almost nonchalantly. I took a tiny sip of my hot chocolate. I hated getting caught.

When I didn't answer, Zero leaned a little closer. "This won't be over any quicker if you just sit there. Were you in the school last night?" He was taking on his classic murderous tone. I nodded reluctantly.

"I was," I answered in a quiet voice.

"And why were you there?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I was reading," I said, with a sinking feeling. Of course he wouldn't believe me, he didn't know about my nightmares. He didn't know how badly I had to escape that suffocating dorm room last night...

"Reading. Really?" His voice dripped with mocking sarcasm. He cocked his head at me. "Now why were you reading _outside the dorm_ last night?"

"I couldn't sleep." It was the truth, but I knew what he would think of it.

"You couldn't sleep." He looked away for a moment, and I saw a muscle in his clenched jaw twitch. "You couldn't bloody sleep." This he said through clenched teeth. Suddenly he stood, twirling the chair out of the way with one hand and slamming the other down in front of me. My chocolate sloshed in its mug and the plate holding my danish rattled. I couldn't help but flinch.

"You couldn't sleep, so you casually break curfew to go read. Yes, well done, _Miss Hawthorne._ Do you think you're above the rules? Hmm?" He asked, expecting me to answer. I turned my face away.

"No," I replied.

"Look at me!" Zero snapped. Reluctantly, I met his gaze. His pale eyes were flinty. "We have rules for a reason at this school. Did you not think there would be consequences for breaking them? Did you think you were immune?"

I closed my eyes and shook my head, looking down at my hot chocolate. Some of it had splashed on my hand, burning the skin pink. "No," I said in a defeated voice.

"Then why did you break student curfew and deliberately ignore school policy?" he asked.

I didn't answer. Zero bent down so that his face was level with mine.

"Miss Hawthorne," he began, "as soon as you finish here, you are to report to the headmaster's office. I'll be waiting right outside that door to make sure you show up. Do you understand?"

"I understand." My breakfast had lost its appeal. I'd had a bad enough night already, and now I was busted on Christmas Eve.

"Good," Zero said shortly, and then he turned heel and walked away, every step echoing in the empty cafeteria. The door clacked shut behind him.

As soon as I was alone, I stood up and took my plate and chocolate to the dish window, where I unceremoniously dumped them into the reciprocal. Going over to the soda fountain, I got myself a cup of ice water and sat down to sip it slowly. It helped a little to settle my stomach.

Right then I wished Christine was there with me. She'd been in trouble before, more often than me. I wouldn't be nearly this distressed if she were there, joking about how detentions weren't so bad, and maybe she could sneak me something later...

Zero banged the cafeteria doors, making me jump. I was almost finished with my water. Draining the last swallow, I tossed the paper cup into the trash and got my coat from the back of my seat. Zero held the door for me as I walked out, and then clapped one hand on my shoulder and led me forcefully out of the Sun dorms and down the path to the Headmaster's residence. He opened the glass doors to the office in the front of the building, half-shoved me inside, bowed shortly to the Headmaster, and left.

Not the best start to my Christmas Eve.

* * *

The Headmaster was much kinder than Zero, but I still went back to the dorms in low spirits. I wasn't suspended, but once school was back in session, I had detention to serve. I was already getting funny looks from the handful of Sun dorm students on campus over the holiday. Soon it would be the only gossip of the school- _Cat Hawthorne_ got busted. Even Christine would rib me for it.

A snowball fight started up midmorning when I emerged from the office. I was very nearly nailed in the face, and I hurried back to the dorm, slipping and sliding on the crusted snow until I was safe back in the warm. A few gas logs were in the fireplace, but the gas wasn't on. Shivering, I stomped the snow out of my shoes and hung up my coat and scarf on the walnut stand.

I gazed out the window for a few moments, watching as one boy in jeans and a green hoodie slipped and fell face-first in the snow, sinking several inches and emerging powdered in white. He was the tallest in the class- the Swedish boy. He ruffled the snow out of his dirty blond hair and laughed, tossing an armload of snow onto another student running by. His clothes were already wet. Was he just immune to the cold?

Climbing the stairs, I went to the girl's common room and picked a DVD from the shelf. I wasn't in the mood for anything Christmas-related, so I picked a favorite fantasy and put it in, curling up on one of the plush couches with a knitted wool afghan.

About halfway through the film, a few girls came up and gathered around the Keurig coffee maker in the corner. The smell of French Vanilla wafted in the air. One black-haired girl sat down on the couch next to mine, cup in hand. I didn't speak to her, and she didn't speak to me. Either news hadn't spread yet, or she just didn't care.

That suited me just fine. I didn't feel like talking about it.

I caught a few knowing glances from the other girls as they walked out the door. One winked clumsily at me. They probably thought I was trying to spy on my Moon Dorm crush, poor girls. Everyone had theirs- even the boys.

I stayed quiet and stayed low for the rest of the day. When my movie finished, I went to my room and wrote in my journal. When I ran out of things to write, I doodled idly, just trying to pass the time. I only left to get a sandwich and a bag of chips from the cafeteria. When I finally went stir-crazy, I put my shoes back on and took my coat and scarf off the stand, going down the path to the school.

Someone had put a "No Skating" sign up on the first post of the bridge. I peered over the edge- sure enough, there was a big break in the ice. Someone had fallen through. Shaking my head with a sigh, I crossed the bridge and went into the school, paying the library a visit. I stayed there until the shadows stretched long and a red-gold light began to shine through the west-facing windows. I left my books in my private reading corner and stood, stretching my legs. I was hungry enough, but without much of an appetite. I checked my watch. It was a little past six-thirty.

Ah. There was a Christmas Eve mass in the chapel. It wouldn't hurt to attend. Gathering up my things, I went to the chapel to save my favorite spot.

* * *

 _Qui Regis Israel intende, qui deducis velut ovem Ioseph..._

A trio of male students stood on the front row of the choir loft, singing the Latin in a beautiful unison melody. I waited at my seat as each person lit the candle of their neighbor, sending the light down each row. It hadn't yet reached the balcony.

 _Qui sedes super Cherubim appare, coram, Beniamin et Manasse._

Thou that sits above the angels appear- a call for the Messiah.

They finished the chant and held the last note for several long moments, letting the sound echo into silence through the small chapel. Despite most of the school being away for the holiday, every seat was filled. Both dorms had attended, too. The headmaster sat along one wall, watching over the crowd of students and teachers. Several girls from my wing of the Sun dorms fidgeted where they stood, trying to keep from touching the white-uniformed student just a few feet in front of them. Another Moon dorm student was standing next to me. I held my peace. He did too.

The trio of singers began another chant, this one wordless, and with more harmony. The candle flame at last reached my corner of the chapel, and the night class boy reached over to touch his burning wick to my unlit one. I made sure only our candles came into contact. Holding my candle before me, I watched the wax slowly melt and the flame delicately, gracefully waver and stretch long. The lights around us went dim and then went off- they turned off the lights. The trio started to sing again, this time in English, for the rest of us to understand and sing along.

 _O come, O come Emmanuel..._

I half-whispered the lines I knew of the song. The student next to me did not sing at all. There was a rustling going down the row, and a few muffled exclamations along the way. When the first verse was finished, I glanced over to find the boy gone. In the rest of the room, the last of the white-uniformed students were filing out the door, sending a cold breeze blowing into the room that put out half the candles. In the balcony, mine was the only one to remain burning.

When the service finally concluded with the clock tower bells ringing the ninth hour, I wondered why the night class students had left so suddenly. And all at once, at that. What drove them out?

I would not find out for some time, but a small clue appeared the next night.

* * *

Christmas Day was just as quiet as Christmas Eve, save for the party in the Sun Dorm lobby. Presents had appeared under the tree, courtesy of the student council's work wrapping all our mailed-in packages in bright paper and ribbons. I had one box, a nice sizeable one, that held a gray lace-knitted beanie, new boots, and a lap desk, complete with an inkwell and a set of fountain pens and calligraphy tools. The label read, _Much love, Aunt Agatha._

I didn't know I had an Aunt Agatha. When I asked around, they said the box had been addressed specifically to me. There was no mistake. Shrugging, I climbed the stairs in my slippered feet and took my gifts to my room, feeling very thankful to my aunt, whether I knew her or not.

The rest of the day, I joined in the festivities. Trouble or not, it was Christmas. I joined in packing snow for a snow fort, and helped defend it when a troop of boys from the other end of the dorms bombarded it with snow. I helped light the candles on the stairs and around the lobby. I sledded and built snowmen and sported my new beanie over my play-frizzed brown hair. When we all stumbled in to the cafeteria at last, I found my appetite had returned in force, and enjoyed the cook's special Christmas feast as much as everyone else, even getting an extra slice of the blueberry pie.

When the sun set, however, and I found myself alone in the school's courtyard, a premonition hit me. I didn't know what it was, but I had a terrible feeling.

A black car drove up to the gates.

Stumbling a little, I went back inside, out of the way, and watched as a black sedan idled while the gates opened, and drove down the long cobbled path to the courtyard in front of the school, right between the snow forts we'd built this morning. It stopped, turned off its lights, and a tall, red-haired man stepped out of the back. He wore a long black trench coat buttoned over sleek black riding boots and a clean white cravat. His face was pale and angular, with high arching brows and cheekbones and eyes so black I couldn't make out the pupils. His lips were pale, almost lavender, and very thin. His hair was long enough to brush his collar, and it looked dark under the lamps over the front door of the school. I turned away from the window before he could get a look back at me and walked very quickly down the hall, wanting to get back to the dorms. Curfew had been extended for today, but I wasn't going to take chances again.

I heard the door open as I turned the corner and a few voices speaking in a different language. Someone had emerged from the front office and greeted the newcomer first in Japanese, and then in English. An accented voice replied to the second greeting.

I kept going, stopping once I had reached the opposite end of the school. Why was I so frightened? What was with this new arrival that sent my instincts screaming?

I recalled my nightmares and shuddered.

Footsteps behind me made me whirl. There he was- standing a hand taller than me, and I wasn't a short girl. He raised a hand in apology.

"I did not mean to startle you. Merry Christmas, my lady," he said with an audible German accent before walking past me and out the door, headed for the bridge to the Moon dorms.

Ah. A new addition to the night class. He fit the beauty stereotype perfectly, too. I was sure that my entire dorm would be pining after him within a week.

As for me, I couldn't shake my gut feeling. Taking a deep breath, I left the school and went back to my dorm.


End file.
